Edge browser on Chromium gets Internet Explorer mode

Microsoft has announced new features for the Chromium-based Edge browser. Among other things, the browser gets an Internet Explorer mode in tabs. There is also the Collections function, for collecting information on the Internet.

IE mode opens sites that require rendering in Internet Explorer in an IE11 tab within Edge. Microsoft’s Chromium-based browser determines which sites it should run as IE11 based on Enterprise Mode Site List. According to Microsoft, there is a demand from companies for such a mode. For example, 66 percent of companies would still use IE because of business apps that only run well within Internet Explorer. According to Microsoft, companies do not want to continue using multiple browsers at the same time. With the current Edge there is the option to open sites in IE, but then the full version of that outdated browser will open.

Another new feature coming to Edge is Collections, similar to Firefox Pocket. It allows users to drag images and text to a sidebar during web sessions to create collections on specific topics. These collections can then be exported as an email, Word document or Excel sheet. Microsoft gives an example of making a list of products from Amazon, for example, and then exporting it to Excel. Thanks to the analysis of metadata, the exported list can be sorted by price, for example.

Edge also gets new privacy settings. In a privacy dashboard, the user can choose from three settings: unlimited, balanced and strict. The setting determines the extent to which third parties on the Internet can track the user and serve ads based on that tracking.

Finally, Microsoft announces that it is integrating developer tools based on the Chromium DevTools into Edge on Chromium. These will also work on the upcoming macOS version of the browser. Microsoft will also base WebView on the Chromium version of Edge. WebView allows developers to integrate web content into Win32 programs and Universal Windows Platform apps.

Microsoft released the first test versions of Edge on Chromium in early April. The company made the switch from its own EdgeHTML to Chromium after Edge managed to attract few users after years of development.